The open source world continues to mature. I’ve been a follower of computer and software technology for over 16 years and, for me, the most intriging is open source. The idea of software being built for the good of the world with no purchase cost incurred, makes sense. Our infrastructure should be “free”. We have roads, utility systems, etc… which are essentially free. We pay some taxes, but I get a whole lot of infrastructure for those tax dollars. Why shouldn’t the internet infrastructure also be close to free? It’s a knowledge utility system.
So now open source has grown out of it’s toddler stage and has become a gregarious teen who is more than happy to stand on thier own. This is evidenced by the highly successful, completely open source, LAMP server. If you didn’t already know a LAMP server consists of Linux, Apache, Mysql, and PHP/Python/Perl and its a low cost, high performance altenative for hosting your online business. Let’s see how it all goes through time. I believe we will see a steady growth in open source. I believe that 5 years from now the providers of the technology landscape will have changed where open source will have grown out of being a teenager and into full adulthood.
I’ve been searching for quantitative evidence that having a disciplined SDLC has a positive effect on the success of a software start-up. I’d love to find a whole lot of data where they “mapped” the start-ups processes and artifacts (or lack thereof) against the specific and generic goals of the CMMI process areas. You know; a random sample of start-ups over the last five years, look into the company as it rolls along taking a few measures against the CMMI level 2 and level 3 process areas. And when the dust settles on which start-ups were successful and which were not, was there any significance to them being disciplined?
I found a good article regarding this and during the section on “Working software over Documentation” it does state a “Major investment in the design of the product’s architecture is one of the practices that characterizes successful Internet companies.” and this was one of four practices. So I keep searching for my evidence, because it matters…